Clinically approved drug could be repurposed to protect against radiation injury

NHLBI IN THE PRESS

Clinically approved drug could be repurposed to protect against radiation injury

January 08, 2018

There is a substantial unmet clinical need for new strategies to protect hematopoietic stem cells, which give rise all the different types of blood cells, after radiation injury from cancer therapy or accidental exposure. Researchers recently showed that a drug currently used widely in the clinic for sex-steroid inhibition promoted the recovery of hematopoietic stem cells as well as mouse survival when administered 24 hours after an otherwise lethal dose of radiation.The study, published in Nature Medicine and partly funded by NHLBI, offer a rational and safe medical countermeasure to hematopoietic radiation injury using a drug already FDA approved for other indications.